December 19, 1998
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) - Fresh from its biggest road win of the season, No. 6Stanford earned one of its toughest victories.
Arthur Lee scored 17 points and Mark Madsen had 16 as No. 6 Stanford beatPacific 71-58 Saturday night, pulling away in the final few minutes to hand theTigers just their second loss in the past 30 games at home.
"It's nice to win in a pretty tough situation. I'm pleased to get two winson the road and I'm pleased to get out of here," said Stanford coach MikeMontgomery.
Tim Young added 15 points and Jarron Collins 10 for Stanford (7-2), whichwas coming off a 101-57 win at Nevada on Thursday night, marking the first100-point game on the road in school history.
Jason Williams' 20 points led Pacific (4-3), which has dropped threestraight since opening the season with four consecutive wins. Scott Thomasonadded nine points, all on 3-pointers in the first half.
"We knew they would play well," Lee said. "They came out hard and keptwith us most of the game. You never take anybody lightly. You know it's toughon the road and that the team you're playing is not going to back down. In thelast few minutes, a couple of shots went down and we got some breaks. It's agood win, because they played very well."
Pacific, up by two at the half, took a 47-42 lead after Williams converted athree-point play. Madsen then grabbed an offensive rebound and muscled in ashot, triggering a 10-0 burst over the next five minutes. Collins' fastbreakslam off a steal punctuated the spree.
The Tigers pulled to 57-55 on Ross Mills' baseline jumper with 4:35remaining. But Pacific failed to make another shot from the field as Stanfordfinished with a 14-3 run, highlighted by Madsen soaring in the lane to tip in amiss by Lee.
"We played great for 35 minutes. We needed one more spurt in the last fiveminutes and we couldn't get it," Pacific coach Bob Thomason said. "Butthey're a great team and they played well. I was happy with the way wecompeted. As young as we are, if we can play like that every night, this teamcan be pretty good."
Stanford, which returned all five starters from last year's Final Four team,leaned on its experience to fend off Pacific in the late going.
"When you have a lot of veterans, you feel good going down the stretch,"Montgomery said. "These guys have a lot of poise and their concentration isvery good.
Pacific trailed 12-4 in the opening minutes but came back on the strength ofThomason's outside shooting before going in front 35-33 on Mills' 15-footjumper just before the halftime buzzer.
Stanford led 25-19 after Madsen made one of two free throws, but Pacifictook off on an 11-0 run that included back-to-back 3-pointers by Thomason andone by Mills.
Young's running jumper in the lane broke up the string and Lee hitsuccessive 3-pointers for Stanford sandwiched around Thomason's third 3-pointerin a three-minute span.